Yet another casualty goes down in the never-ending battle of copyright enforcement, and this time, it hit a big website which was the host for many fangames based and inspired on Pokemon, called "Relic Castle".

Earlier this week, the owner and the manager of the Relic Castle website, Marin and Andy, respectively, gave the news about the website being taken down by a DMCA notice (which according to the owners, was given by a third-party authorized by The Pokemon Company) throughout the Relic Castle Discord server, as well as through their official Relic Castle website, closing it down entirely and only giving the following message upon entering the website:

Dear Pokémon fan game community,

It is with heavy heart that I announce that the Relic Castle website has been taken down following a DMCA takedown notice.

Relic Castle has always been a non-profit, ad-free, tight-knit community and we pride ourselves in what we have achieved. Members have felt at home, made friends, and even careers with us. It is with deep regret that I have to inform you that the forum part of this community, which was to turn 10 years old this year, has had to come to an end. With over 20,000 members and 65,000 posts, Relic Castle was a home to many of us.

The Discord server is not going anywhere, and the site is still visible as an archive using the Wayback Machine.

Thank you all for being with us this last decade, and thank you for making Relic Castle as awesome and life-changing as it has been for some of us.

Sincerely,
Marin
Owner
&
Andy
Manager

This isn't the first time The Pokemon Company has taken down fan projects based on the Pokemon IP, as was the case with the highly known Pokemon Uranium fangame, and not only that, but The Pokemon Co. has been hard at work hunting down and shutting down all kinds of mods related to Pokemon in any sort of way, like the most recent case of the Palworld-Pokemon mod which was instantly taken down by a DMCA.

Both Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have been on hot waters with all their recent legal actions towards fan projects, emulation and mods, and given their aggressive legal nature, it's unlikely they are going to stop anytime soon.

Source
Relic Castle archive at Archive.org

 

[samcambolt270]

didn't stop apple they tried to sue woolworths for their logo and my personal fav a train station CLOCK!

sueing is different. You can sue all you want for trademark infringement. It's specifically dmca that I'm referring to. The point is that you can't issue a dmca takedown over trademark infringement.

 

[chrisrlink]

Thank you for your service The Pokemon Company. Protecting us from dangerous intellectual property theives

for once if i get banned for it I'd happily leave GO F- YOURSELF

Post automatically merged: Mar 26, 2024

It would be nice to see partnership program instead of people just using crap without permission, say small dev pitches idea to Nintendo, Nintendo accepts, an agreement is signed pay whatever then you can legally use Ip and such in fan made content.

funny they did that with the DP music and nintendo walked back really quick on the idea...... figures

 

[Quore]

As we can see

Nintendo DEFINITELY love its community

 

[chrisrlink]

https://www.eurogamer.net/former-po...ighting-projects-for-the-company-to-take-down

"Former Pokemon lawyer thanks media for highlighting projects for the company to take down"

Not directly related, but here's an article from less than 2 weeks ago where for the first(?) time, the head of TPCi legal discloses something about how they take down fan games.

so should wwe shoot the messenger now (being news sites?)

 

[Quore]

I can hardly wait for their new system to be emulated and pirated right out of the gate.
My only wish was that MigSwitch would have waited on release until the new system hit, so it would hopefully nail both systems to the wall at once.

I have ZERO plans to buy the new console (maybe the Switch... but only in the future... and only with mod-chip)

But I'm gonna be so SO happy when it gets jailbroken, via software or mod-chip, I don't care. Nintendo has some real urge to DMCA everyone who makes something related to their IP (be it a good or bad thing) that i really wanna see they crazy in a run to prevent the it's console modding

Post automatically merged: Mar 26, 2024

Quoting me from the other thread

Nintendo be like:

-YOU CAN'T BE HAPPY WITH MY GAMES WITHOUT GIVING ME MONEY, I'M GONNA SUE YOU

 

[Vorde]

Nintendo doing Nintendo things.
I really wish the bad practices of Nintendo were global news, their PR and Image need to be damaged by how awful they treat the communities around their games.

 

[Jayro]

I have ZERO plans to buy the new console (maybe the Switch... but only in the future... and only with mod-chip)

But I'm gonna be so SO happy when it gets jailbroken, via software or mod-chip, I don't care. Nintendo has some real urge to DMCA everyone who makes something related to their IP (be it a good or bad thing) that i really wanna see they crazy in a run to prevent the it's console modding

Post automatically merged: Mar 26, 2024

Nintendo be like:

-YOU CAN'T BE HAPPY WITH MY GAMES WITHOUT GIVING ME MONEY, I'M GONNA SUE YOU View attachment 427947

Once the new system comes out and I do the system transfer, I'll be selling my Switch because it's a virgin Erista launch system that's never even had a payload booted on it. So I'll be able to at least recoop a good portion of my cost that way. I already have another Erista unit that's hacked and banned for Piracy.

 

[Bladexdsl]

It would be nice to see partnership program instead of people just using crap without permission, say small dev pitches idea to Nintendo, Nintendo accepts, an agreement is signed pay whatever then you can legally use Ip and such in fan made content.

they did that once they let people stream nintendo games on youtube than quickly backtracked and dmca anyone who used mario music in their videos

 

[ChronosNotashi]

Nintendo will never do that, they have their heads so up their asses that they will never accept any kind of suggestion or pitch from small indie devs, much less unknown fangame developers.

Not trying to play devil's advocate here, but there's at least one game made by an indie dev that proves otherwise. Since the dev of the game did bring their pitch to Nintendo before doing anything - initially wanting permission to use Nintendo's IP for DLC, before shared interests evolved the idea into a full crossover title.

Cadence of Hyrule

I mean, I know roguelikes (including rhythm ones) aren't everyone's cup of tea, but just throwing it out there to show that Nintendo has considered ideas and concepts when brought to them for consideration (preferably before attempting to use their IPs).

 

[galileocitylights]

I've been thinking... is there a database that lists all notable Nintendo fan games or ROM hacks that have been shut down? If some site had some basic information like the name of the game, a short description, and some screenshots, this could go a long way in preserving these games. I feel like a lot of these shutdowns are sort of isolated from each other, so I don't even know about some previous super popular hacks and fan games that are no longer here. The database wouldn't have any download links or instructions -- just the names would be enough so I could at least know what might be out there on the depths of the internet!

 

[jeremy2020]

Have you released some disappointing games that were derided by your fans and damaging to your reputation? If so, then I have just the thing for you! BLAME CAN..err.. Piracy!

 

[HarveyHouston]

I feel like it's appropriate to point to a famous quote by a famous individual (and no, it doesn't mean what you might think it sounds like, but that can apply, too):

...Meanwhile, PalWorld is being featured on Steam.

 

[Daggot]

The DMCA is the worst thing to happen in America to digital media. Abolish the DMCA.

Not far enough imo. Abolish copyright law as it stands.

 

[x149te]

People should forget about pokemons and do Palworld fan games instead.

 

[SaberLilly]

Nintendo's been on a roll haven't they? you take down one emulator that actually WAS supporting piracy and suddenly you become the god of DMCA issuing.

 

[Bladexdsl]

i said it in another thread once they took down yuzu there would be no stopping them now they think they can get away with anything. yuzu was only the beginning

 

[MarkDarkness]

Hopefully this keeps turning more people away from purchasing Nintendo products.

 

[Metoroid0]

nintendo is getting annoying by the day.

 

[BlusterBong]

Can they not just make a NEW WEBSITE with all the same links but under a different name?? Like how many times has The Pirate Bay been taken down just to come back again? people should say screw these stupid DMCA's instead of just giving up against Nintendo/The Pokemon Company and being like "well guess we can't do anything about it"...

Becuase Nu-Internet Users (pretty much anyone who's been using the internet circa 2010, including a good amount of GBATemp users) simply cannot comprehend the idea that Maybe, Just Maybe you can just not listen and keep hosting under alternate domains anyways. Even the "New Zeland Enjoyers" have been doing that for years on end.

 

[Gamesnark]

Becuase Nu-Internet Users (pretty much anyone who's been using the internet circa 2010, including a good amount of GBATemp users) simply cannot comprehend the idea that Maybe, Just Maybe you can just not listen and keep hosting under alternate domains anyways. Even the "New Zeland Enjoyers" have been doing that for years on end.

Possibly out of fear that there may be even far worse ramifications that could occur if TPC discovers another site, such as a lawsuit or something. I can't personally speak on the costs of hosting a site but having to constantly pay for and construct new sites would probably be exhausting, especially if the next one gets taken down after the fact.